


Count the Waves

by RomanWanderer



Category: The 100 (TV)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Beach, F/F, lifeguard AU
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2016-05-26
Updated: 2016-05-30
Packaged: 2018-07-10 07:39:35
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 2
Words: 4,451
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/6973519
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/RomanWanderer/pseuds/RomanWanderer
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Prompt: a pro swimmer/part time lifeguard and a sunbather who hates water, can't swim, and only goes to the beach to tan au</p><p>Or Octavia just wants to enjoy lying in the sun.</p><p>an octaven fic</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> Part 1 of 4 perhaps 5? Anyway, yes I think uploading something every other day is more doable. But Imma still shoot for every day, 'cause I like the challenge >:) I just don't have the time;;;
> 
> anyway, here's a beach au for your Octaven feels :)
> 
> Also, I didn't send this to my beta yet so there's most definitely mistakes and I apologize. lol

Octavia loves going to the beach just purely for the aesthetics of it, because she actually hates going to the beach. She hates the sand in her bathing suit, she hates the salty water, she hates the tourists, she hates the sea gulls; she pretty much hates everything except the look of it, and how much sun she was getting. But for Clarke, Harper, and Monroe, the beach was all about swimming, splashing, and annoying Octavia. They would sometimes just sit and read or tan with her.

“Hey, it’s that cute life guard again,” Clarke points at a tanned girl sitting on the tall life guard chair.

“Shut up,” Octavia scoffs.

Last time they were at this beach, which was last weekend, the same girl was there and it was so windy that Octavia’s bikini top somehow blew away when she took it off to tan her back. The girl was the one to run after it, and all Octavia could do was cover her breasts with her arms. It was terribly embarrassing for O, but of course her friends will never let that day go. In fact, Octavia doesn’t even know why she agreed to come back. At least it wasn’t as windy today.

Octavia had to admit, the girl _is_ cute, but now there was no way in Hell she’d say that out loud. Anyway, last week is was barely sunny enough for Octavia’s liking, and today was such a nice that she just _had_ to come. She just wants to sit on her towel and read her book until she starts dozing off, and then lie down to get some sun while she naps.

Her friends had other plans though. They brought a volleyball ball, a cooler full of beer, some sandwiches and chips, a waterproof go-pro, and speakers for their music. They were ready to party.

“You should ask life guard girl to join us,” Monroe elbows Octavia.

Octavia looks annoyed, “Why me, though? Plus she’s working, she can’t join.”

“Well, she basically saw your…” Monroe motions to Octavia’s breasts, and O shot her a death glare. “Your awesome personality.”

Harper and Clarke join Monroe in laughter, and Octavia was trying real hard not to laugh at the redhead’s save. 

“But you should seriously set the book down and have fun with us today,” Harper interjects. “Come on, O. It’s such a beautiful day! You’ll tan while you’re having fun, if that’s what you’re worried about.”

“I’m not worried about anything, this happens to be a good book,” Octavia says as she pats the book. “But fine, you’re right. It’s too nice of a day to just sit around and read.”

“That’s my girl!” Clarke hooks her arm around Octavia’s neck and ruffles her hair.

“Hey!”

The laughter of the four girls got the girl’s attention from her chair. Only Octavia noticed her looking, though. So before Octavia had the chance to quickly look away, she saw the girl waving after a beat of recognition. The lifeguard turned back to looking out to the sea, and Octavia knows that she remembers her. Great.

Clarke connects her phone to the speakers and starts playing some music while Monroe is trying to figure out how to turn on the go-pro. In the mean time, Octavia and Harper were putting on some sunscreen. Well, Harper was. O was lathering herself with sun tanning lotion.

“Hey, could you help me on my back?” Harper asks.

“Yeah sure, turn around,” Octavia says as she was already squeezing some sunscreen onto her hand.

They were ready to chill now. First they decided to play some volleyball. Clarke and Octavia on one side and Harper and Monroe on the other. Every time Clarke or Octavia would miss, Monroe would shout. After a while, both Clarke and O started doing the same. And then it just turned into a hot mess of shouts. They were all exhausted and sweaty, so the game was done, and Monroe swears that her side had more points, which Clarke is saying that she’s wrong. Octavia shakes her head laughing at the two girls who are trying to decide who won, and she decides to steal a glance at the lifeguard. She was wearing her bathing suit with a white shirt in which the sleeves were cut off all the way down to her waist. She had a great tan, and Octavia couldn’t decide if it was because of her nationality or because she works out in the sun all the time. It’s probably both. The girl had very nice biceps and legs, and Octavia wonders if she also has abs…

“Octavia?” Clarke says while she’s trying, but failing, to hold in her laughter.

“Dude, you were so totally checking her out!” Monroe says a little too loudly.

Octavia punches both girls on the arms, and the all explode in laughter. “No I wasn’t, shut up.”

“Oh, come on, you’re practically _drooling_ ,” Harper joins in and also gets a punch on the arm from Octavia.

“Oh man,” Clarke shakes her head. “Let’s just get in the water already.

Octavia suddenly felt very nervous. There was a bigger reason why she never went in the water with her friends. Monroe grabs the go-pro and joins the other two who were walking towards the shore. Octavia tried to move towards them, but she felt rooted to the ground.

“Aren’t ya comin’?” Monroe asks over her shoulder.

“Yeah, I’m coming,” Octavia swallows.

The reason Octavia never went swimming with her friends is because she never learnt how to swim.

“Just stay at waist level, O,” the girl whispers to herself as she walked towards the beach.

In swimming pools, O wasn’t as nervous, because they’re mostly five feet deep or shallower. She didn’t have to swim; she could just walk. But in the ocean, there was not telling how deep it was, and she’s already had bad experience swimming in the beach when she was just a kid.

The three other girls were already in the water splashing each other. When the water lapped on Octavia’s feet, the suddenness of the cold water took her breath away for a second. She whimpers at the thought of the three girls splashing her too. As she kept walking deeper in the water, the more she regretted this decision. But she couldn’t back down now; she was too stubborn to do so.

Just like Octavia had predicted, Monroe was the first one to splash her with the salty water. Clarke and Harper joined and Octavia was trying to splash back. The water got into her eyes and it stung, so O stops and begs the others to stop as well. Once at waist level, Octavia crouches down so she’s not awkwardly standing. The other girls seem to have the same idea, and Octavia is thankful. They talked, and Monroe tried to get videos of them being submerged underwater. At first, Octavia was skeptical about being fully enveloped by water, even if she could still reach the ground. But after she did it once, it didn’t feel so scary, so she kept doing it. The water stung her eyes and nostrils and it left the worst taste in her mouth, but she was finally happy that she decided to get in the water. It was actually pretty fun, and the constant movement of the waves was rather soothing.

“Holy shit guys,” Monroe says.

“What?” Clarke asks and everyone looks at the redhead.

“We’re so far away from the shore.”

“ _What?_ ” Octavia freaks out.

It was then she noticed that she wasn’t crouching anymore. The water was up to her shoulders, and she was fully standing up. In fact, she was also on her tiptoes. 

“Oh, no, no, no,” Octavia couldn’t stop herself from losing control of her legs, balance, sanity, _everything_.

Somehow, her every attempt to get to the shallows was failing, and in turn Octavia was going backwards. She was also caught in a rip current, pushing her even farther away. Keeping her head above water was very hard for Octavia. She would shout, but what felt like gallons of water came in her mouth.

“Octavia!” Someone was screaming.

The girls had actually started swimming towards shore when Monroe had brought up her observation earlier, but failed to notice that Octavia wasn’t actually just behind them anymore. Now they were fairly far away, with the distance getting bigger as the current carried Octavia away.

Octavia thrashed and waved her arms and legs as fast as she could, but nothing was helping her keep afloat. She couldn’t stop swallowing the rancid seawater, and her chest hurt, as she couldn’t breathe anymore. Her whole body hurt as it was trying not to drown, but her vision was getting dark and her limbs more tired. She couldn’t hold her breath anymore, and breathed in water and closed her eyes.

 

Octavia coughs as she violently starts throwing up the salty water. All her insides stung, and she felt as if she couldn’t move.

“ _Fuck_ O, wake up,” Clarke’s desperate voice is what brought Octavia to reality.

Octavia opened her eyes slowly, half because they stung like hell, and the other half was because it was really fucking bright wherever she was. As her vision adjusted she saw the lifeguard just inches on top of her dripping wet. Crowds of people were clapping and cheering, but O didn't really notice them.

“Oh thank god,” the lifeguard sighs. 

“Oh, my god Octavia,” Harper sobs.

“W-” Octavia tried to talk but her throat was so sore that she couldn’t.

“It’s okay, you’re okay,” the girl helps her sit up. “Take it easy now.”

Octavia looks around and she sees the tears on her friend’s faces. She also sees people standing around her in a circle, all with relieved looks in their faces.

“What happened?” Octavia manages to say, even though it stung to do so.

“You seem to have been caught in a rip current,” the lifeguard answers, and Octavia notices that the girl was still holding her up and holding her hand. She doesn’t do anything about it, though.

Octavia didn’t know what to say to the girl.

“You almost _died_ , O,” Monroe explains. “She saved your life."

Octavia looks up to meet the lifeguard’s gaze, “Thank you,” she barely whispers.

The girl slowly shakes her head and smiles without breaking eye contact. “It’s what I’m here for. Here, you think you can get up?”

Octavia nods and lets the lifeguard help her up.

“All right, nothing to see here anymore, people,” the girl says as she puts an arm around Octavia. “She’s fine, you can keep enjoying this beautiful day.”

Many people leave while saying “Thank you,” to the lifeguard. She takes O to where they have their things set up. Clarke helps by taking O’s other arm to help. They set Octavia down on her towel, and slowly she was regaining her strength, but also she was starting to feel more pain in her insides.

“Thank you so much,” Octavia starts. “I don’t what happened. We were in a shallow part and then… And then...” Octavia strains her memory, but it was all fuzzy at the moment.

“It’s completely fine. I’m just glad you’re okay,” she smiles at O. “I should get back to work now,” the girl nods at them.

“Wait,” Octavia stops the girl before she could leave. “I don’t even know your name.”

“Raven,” she smiles.

“Raven,” Octavia repeats quietly. “Thank you for saving my life, Raven. I’m Octavia by the way.”

“I’m glad to help, Octavia,” Raven nods and leaves to go back to her post.

“Oh, my god Octavia,” Clarke suddenly hugs Octavia. “We were so fucking scared.”

“We thought you were just behind us, I’m so sorry, O,” Monroe says.

“Everything happened so fast, and suddenly you were so far away, and I felt so _helpless_ ,” Harper adds.

“Are you sure you’re okay?” Clarke asks while wiping her eyes.

Tears were falling from the girl’s faces, and Octavia’s eyes started to tear up, “Yeah, I’m fine guys,” Octavia sniffs, causing her to feel pain, since her nose still stung. “I just…” she covers her face with her hand. “I don’t know how to swim, I’m sorry.”

After a few seconds of silence, Octavia looks up and sees everyone with incredulous looks on their faces.

“You should’ve said something! Oh, my god, I’m sorry I didn’t know,” Clarke tries not to scream but fails.

“Everything makes sense now,” Harper says more quietly, but the group of friends heard her.

“What does?” Monroe asks.

“The fact that Octavia always just wants to sit and read.”

“That and I actually do fancy a tan,” Octavia explains.

“I can’t believe you never told any of us,” Clarke mutters.

Octavia wraps her arms around her legs, “It’s embarrassing,” she says through her teeth.

Octavia lies down on her towel and the girls join her on their own towels. Despite almost drowning to death just now, she didn’t felt as scared of going to the beach anymore, because now she doesn’t have to make up excuses as to why she doesn’t want to swim.

“Hey guess what,” Monroe speaks after a few moments of silence.

“What?” Octavia voices.

“Raven kissed you.”

“ _What?_ ” the brunette sits up and ends up in a coughing fit. Fuck, did her throat hurt.

“Yeah, when you were unconscious, she gave you mouth to mouth, got it all on video,” Monroe wiggles her eyebrows as she pats her little go-pro camera that now sits on her chest. “And now I got this on video too,” she winks.

“I fucking hate you,” Octavia growls and she lies back down.

“Love you too!”

Octavia shakes her head and closes her eyes. She thinks of Raven. She likes her name. Raven. It was nice. And it somehow fit her perfectly.


	2. Chapter 2

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> update~ hope you guys like it?? I'm working on a couple AU's atm so I'm like writing FF all the fucking time now lmao anyway, you guys can follow my tumblr horrible-gaydar if you guys want to drop by and say hi and/or give me some prompts and pairings? (: lol

“Who’s hungry?” Clarke asks the group after they had been lying down for a while.

Monroe lets out an audible gasp, “fuck, I fell asleep.”

“Me too,” Harper sits up and stretches as she yawns.

“Feels nice, doesn’t it?” Octavia gloats not even bothering to open her eyes. 

Octavia had drank some bottled water just a little earlier and rested hoping that her pain would subside. Her throat still hurt a bit and her head still felt fuzzy, but otherwise she was feeling better overall. Apparently Clarke had made a note to ask her every few minutes if she was okay or if she needed something. After being driven crazy with all the poking, Octavia told Clarke that she needed to rest. They all ended up taking a nap in the sun together, and Octavia couldn't have felt more refreshed. 

They all ate and drank some. Monroe suggests that they should play more volleyball. Octavia still doesn't feel 100% so she decides to sit this one out. 

“You know, you guys can go swimming,” Octavia reassures after a few minutes of a painfully silent rally. “I'll just read my book, like always,” Octavia picks up her book and opens it to the page she was on. 

The girls look at each other before turning back to the reading girl. “You sure..?” Clarke cautiously asks. 

“Seriously, dude. I'm fine,” Octavia tried giving her most genuine smile. 

“Okay,” Monroe drops the ball by her towel. “Thanks, O.”

“It's nothing, really.”

The trio walk to the water, and O hates how awkward things got. Yeah, she drowned and almost _died_ , but she's okay now, so there was no need to cater to all her needs. She exhales and tries concentrating on her book to keep her mind off everything. 

“Whatcha reading?” Raven asks after Octavia’s been reading for a long while. 

“Oh!” She closes the book to read the title, since she’s having a momentary brain relapse. “It's ‘ _Me After You_ ’.”

“Isn't that that new movie coming out soon?” The lifeguard asks. 

“Yeah, this Friday,” O sets the book aside as the other girl took a seat on the sand next to her. “I like to read the books before watching the movie.”

“Ah, you're one of _those_ ,” Raven snorts. “I like to watch the movies and…. Not read the books.”

They laugh, “so you're one of _those_?” Octavia mocks the other. 

Raven shakes her head and let's the laughter die down. She looks out to the shore and spots O’s friends. “Too scared to join them today?”

Octavia thinks about it for a while. “Not really… I just don't care about swimming that much,” she explains. 

“ _What?_ ” Raven said that as if Octavia just offended her and her whole family. “You're lying.”

“I, um…” _Might as well tell her_ , “I never learned how to swim. So I don't even try to be in the water anymore.”

If Octavia thought Raven sounded offended when she said she didn't care, then Raven now looked like O had cursed her first born or something. “Wow, then what the hell were you doing in so deep?”

“I don't know,” she shakes her head. 

“So you’re not afraid?”

“I don't know,” Octavia answers truthfully. “I mean, yes I'm afraid to be put in that situation again, but I was okay in the shallow. I was more afraid of telling my friends that I didn't know how to swim than the fact that I actually don't know.”

Raven chuckles and then stands up, “here,” she offers her hand. “I'll show you the basics.”

Octavia looks up at the girl for a second before grabbing her hand. Immediately, Octavia felt her stomach turn in nervousness. 

“Wait, don't you need to be up there?” Octavia points at the lifeguard chair with her free hand and notices that someone else was sitting on it. “Oh?”

“I'm off duty. Done for today,” Raven explains as she pulls Octavia. 

They were walking towards some small shacks, still holding hands and Octavia was trying really hard not to think about that. 

“Hey, Raven!” A guy shouts from the concessions stand, the smallest of all shacks. 

“What up, Murph!” Raven lets go of Octavia’s hand to wave back and doesn't take it back when she's done. 

Octavia feels both relieved and sad that they weren't holding hands anymore. Relieved, because she was starting to literally shake with nerves but sad because she really liked the feeling of her hand in hers. 

“In here,” Raven points at a half-open door of the farthest shed. “Come on.”

Raven opens the door all the way and on the inside was full of different things; pool noodles, boogie boards, ropes, life jackets, surf boards, etc. Octavia came in the room closely followed by Raven who shuts the door behind them. 

“Have you used one of these before?” She picks up a small boogie board. 

“No, I don't think so,” she replies shyly. 

“If you hold onto this, it'll keep you safely above water,” the lifeguard hands the girl the board. “I think that should be good, though. I don't know, how confident do you feel? Want a life jacket?”

“If you're going to be there, then I feel safe,” Octavia spills out before she can think about how embarrassing that sounded. 

The girl looks away hoping that she didn't look as red as she felt. 

“I promise I will,” Raven squeezes O’s shoulder. “Come one, let's go.”

Raven walks towards the door and Octavia follows but the lifeguard suddenly stops. 

“Fuck,” Octavia hears Raven whisper. 

“Everything okay?”

“Yeah, the door’s locked.”

“What?”

“The door is locked.”

Octavia fought every urge she had to slap her forehead with her palm. 

“Do you have any keys?”

Raven closes her eyes and looks away, “no… Not with me, at least. I wasn’t thinking. I should’ve left the door open...”

They stood there still and in silence for quite a long time, as if time had stopped. 

“ _Murphy!_ ” Raven screams at the top of her lungs. She starts banging on the door. 

After a good five minutes of screaming and banging, the girls sit down and accept defeat. 

“What now?” Octavia asks. 

“I mean, I guess we can keep screaming and hitting the door, but otherwise, Sterling should be coming in here when his shift ends to return the lifeguard gear.”

They sigh in unison. It will probably be hours before anyone needs to get in the shed. 

“Might as well get to know each other now, right?” Raven interrupts the heavy silence. 

“Yeah, what else can we do,” Octavia chuckles trying really hard to ignore thinking about the things she wants to do to Raven. 

“Right, so tell me your story, Octavia who can't swim,” Raven jokes. 

Octavia starts with her family. She talks about how she never met her father, and about how close she was with Bellamy, but he seemed to have trouble processing that she was an adult now and off to college. 

“College?”

“Yeah, I'm a freshman.”

“I graduate next year.”

Raven now tells her that she's going to college to study Marine Biology.

“Wow, so you must love the water a lot.”

“You have _no idea_ ,” she shakes her head chuckling. “How about you?”

“Uh, undecided. I'm just getting my general eds out of the way.”

“So you have no idea at all?”

Octavia thinks about it, “I like literature. But I don't know what to go from there.”

“That's a start. Hell, that's how I started. I just knew I loved anything to do with water,” she laughs. “I'm sure you'll figure something out that will work out greatly for you.”

“Thank you,” Octavia says softly. 

A couple of hours pass, Octavia guesses, and they’ve talked about almost everything they could think of. Favorite books, favorite movies, favorite bands, favorite tv shows. It turns out that they both share a favorite show, Survivor, and they took a while talking about who’re they rooting for, and who they hate, and how much they actually want to try out to be in the show. 

“So now I'm actually really hoping you can teach me how to swim, because there's a lot of swimming,” Octavia smiles. 

“Don't you worry, I'll make a pro out of you,” Raven winks. 

The room got quiet yet again, as they seem to have run out of things to say. 

“Hey, Octavia,” Raven breaks the silence. 

“Hm?”

“There’s a bonfire going on here tomorrow night, and if we get out of here alive,” she chuckles. “Do you want to go?”

“Yeah. With you?” Octavia blushes and stammers as she keeps talking. “I- I mean, you're going to be there right?”

“Of course I am, why else would I be inviting you?”

“Right,” Octavia brushes the back of her neck. 

“And yeah, with me,” Octavia could see a blush creeping on Raven’s face. “You can bring your friends as well. They seem very nice and it’d be cool to get to know them as well.”

“Yeah, definitely,” She nods. 

They look at each other with shy, blushing smiles. “Here,” Raven finds a pen on one of the shelves. She sits next to Octavia and grabs her arm. 

_Breathe in, breathe out,_ was all Octavia could think as Raven wrote her phone number on the inside of her arm. 

“Now write yours just in case,” she hands O the pen. 

Octavia nods and scribbles down her phone number on Ravens nicely tanned arm. She looks up when she's done and sees the lifeguard staring down at her, and couldn't help but dip her eyes down to Raven’s parted lips. 

Their attention was pulled away from each other when they heard a voice coming from right outside the hut. 

“Hey!” They banged on the door wildly until they heard someone fumbling with the door knob. 

“Get the guy from the concession stand and tell him Raven is stuck in the lifeguard shed!” Raven explains to the stranger. 

“Okay!”

They waited a few minutes straining their ears to listen for someone to come. 

“I'm here, Rae,” Murphy says as he inserts his key.

When the door opens, Raven throws herself on the boy. “Never have I ever been so glad to see your ugly face!”

“You're welcome,” he rolls his eyes. 

They walk out the shack and they thank the man who helped them get Murphy. The sun was very low, and that meant that they’ve been stuck in there for a long time. 

“I should go back to my friends,” Octavia says. 

Raven nods. “And I gotta go, but text me okay?”

“I will.”

They wave good bye, and Octavia jogs back to where her stuff was. 

“Oh my god, Octavia!” Harper sprints towards her. “Are you okay? Where were you?” She sounds exasperated and Octavia felt really bad because she had worried her friends half to death yet again. 

“I'm sorry, I got stuck in a shed with Raven. She was going to teach me how to swim but the door locked itself and… Yeah. Where are the others?”

“Looking for you! I stayed here to see if you came back,” Harper walks back to her bag and pulls out her phone and texts Clarke and Monroe. 

“Today is such a fucking weird day, I'm sorry.”

“No! You're fine, don't be. We just got worried. Clarke went to the car to see if you were there and Monroe went to the showers.” 

“O!” Monroe shouts as she runs back. “Thank god,” she hugs Octavia before resting her hands on her knees to breathe. “What happen?”

Octavia chuckles, “I'll just tell you when Clarke gets here so I don't repeat myself three times.”

When Clarke gets there, Octavia tells them what she just told Harper. And that she was sorry for worrying them. 

“Plus, look,” Octavia bites her lip as she shows off the phone number written on her arm. 

“No way…” 

“Holy shit, O! You got Raven’s number?” Monroe takes the girl’s arm and examines the number. “How legit is this, though? This isn't some ‘ _I'll be your swim teacher_ ’ or some shit, right?”

“Nope, it's pretty legit,” Octavia tries (but fails) to hide her smile. “She invited me to a party tomorrow night. Here, I believe. Oh, and she said you guys can come.”

“‘ _Oh_ ’,” Clarke mocks. 

Harper slaps Clarke's arm and looks back at Octavia. “We're so happy for you! And yeah, we'll go, as long as you want us there.”

“Of course I want you guys there!”

The four of them talk about tomorrow night animatedly as they pack up their things. They're planning on just coming around the daytime to swim and chill, and if need be, they'll drive home and back to take showers and get ready. Otherwise, they would just stay there and wait for the party to start.


End file.
